Unabashedly, enthusiastically acoustic, this is folk/roots music at its enduring best. The mother/son duo's earthy vocal harmonies hark back to the Carter Family, while their beautifully spare story-songs address eternal themes of love, family, and change. "It's produced like early Elvis," Ben Harper told Rolling Stone of Childhood Home. "I think they're going to call it 'Americana,' but it's soul, California, folk rock." Harper's grandparents began the Folk Music Center in Claremont, California. Multi-instrumentalist Ellen Harper and family used the store as a musical lab, and it became a magnet for the likes of Ry Cooder and Taj Mahal. Guess what the refrain is to the catchy, retro banjo tune "Farmer's Daughter"? "It all belongs to Monsanto." Woody Guthrie would be proud. (By the way, Ben and Charlie Musselwhite won the "Best Blues Album" Grammy for last year's Get Up!.)

"A highlight is the simmering 'Born to Love You,' which finds the duo harmonizing over distant piano chords and brushed snares: 'Some born to lose, some born to win / They say we're all born into sin,' Ben sings, 'That's a hard way to begin, but I was born to love you.' Elsewhere, 'The Farmer's Daughter' weaves plucked banjos and snaking dobro lines into an epic, traditional-styled bluegrass ballad: 'It's no joke,' Ellen sings, 'We're always broke and live on dirt and water.' Though bound by its acoustic framework, the album journeys in a number of directions."—Rolling Stone